Hey theory 11 forum friends,
So I wanted to let you all in on a couple things that I have done that I hope I can share and perhaps encourage any one who might be struggling in certain aspects of their technical skill with close up magic. When it comes to the performance part of doing a magic show or routine, I've never really had trouble. I have a degree in theater and I have been apart of multiple improv groups and performances. The part of magic that I struggle with is of course the technical aspect of close up magic. The double lifts, the different passes, the fake shuffles and cuts, the different kind of breaks, all the palms under the sun..you get the idea. My first inclination was to dive in and try to learn all of them at the same time, but it wasn't working. I would figure out the basics of them and try to perform a trick using that technique and more often then not it was sloppy. So, what I decided was I would build a routine that used only a handful of techniques to start with and really give those time and effort till I really nailed them. The ones my current routine calls for is, double lift, slop shuffle, false cut, false shuffle, a card force, a false transfer of a coin to my dominate hand and multiple controls to the top and bottom of the decks. So for the last two weeks I've devoted a lot of time to each of these while I go about my day. I work from home so while I'm at my desk I'm constantly doing double lifts, or really trying to understand how my hand closes around a coin being put into it. Appointments with doctors or clients I will bring a deck while I'm sitting in the waiting room and just do double lifts over and over and over again. *Got some good reactions from a couple of teenagers that saw it*
The point I'm making is, I was very sloppy with almost all of these just two weeks ago, but I put in the time and really focus on just a few things and even in this short span of time, I'm starting to notice a difference. My performances are much cleaner and the two people I run all my tricks by even have mentioned the difference. Even if you have smaller hands or you keep flashing cards, don't give up, Magic is a craft like any other, to be a master, it takes skill, skill requires practice, and practice time and patience. You can do it, and if you ever get discouraged feel free to read this or message me on here, I'm still learning myself, I am happy to share what I can.
TL;DR - Good at performance bad at techniques. Put in a lot of time and patience, getting better every day. You can too!
So I wanted to let you all in on a couple things that I have done that I hope I can share and perhaps encourage any one who might be struggling in certain aspects of their technical skill with close up magic. When it comes to the performance part of doing a magic show or routine, I've never really had trouble. I have a degree in theater and I have been apart of multiple improv groups and performances. The part of magic that I struggle with is of course the technical aspect of close up magic. The double lifts, the different passes, the fake shuffles and cuts, the different kind of breaks, all the palms under the sun..you get the idea. My first inclination was to dive in and try to learn all of them at the same time, but it wasn't working. I would figure out the basics of them and try to perform a trick using that technique and more often then not it was sloppy. So, what I decided was I would build a routine that used only a handful of techniques to start with and really give those time and effort till I really nailed them. The ones my current routine calls for is, double lift, slop shuffle, false cut, false shuffle, a card force, a false transfer of a coin to my dominate hand and multiple controls to the top and bottom of the decks. So for the last two weeks I've devoted a lot of time to each of these while I go about my day. I work from home so while I'm at my desk I'm constantly doing double lifts, or really trying to understand how my hand closes around a coin being put into it. Appointments with doctors or clients I will bring a deck while I'm sitting in the waiting room and just do double lifts over and over and over again. *Got some good reactions from a couple of teenagers that saw it*
The point I'm making is, I was very sloppy with almost all of these just two weeks ago, but I put in the time and really focus on just a few things and even in this short span of time, I'm starting to notice a difference. My performances are much cleaner and the two people I run all my tricks by even have mentioned the difference. Even if you have smaller hands or you keep flashing cards, don't give up, Magic is a craft like any other, to be a master, it takes skill, skill requires practice, and practice time and patience. You can do it, and if you ever get discouraged feel free to read this or message me on here, I'm still learning myself, I am happy to share what I can.
TL;DR - Good at performance bad at techniques. Put in a lot of time and patience, getting better every day. You can too!